Sunday, August 9/ Gdansk, Poland
Sapphire Princess on the Baltic Sea
75F and sunny!
We have anticipated our stop in Gdansk, Poland for a long
time and finally here we are on a sunny, mild day! Gdańsk is a city on
the Baltic coast of northern Poland. With a population of 470,000
it is Poland's sixth largest city and its major seaport. Poland’s population is about
38 million people. We learned so much today from our wonderful tour guide,
Joanna L.
The ship is in port in Gdynia, a short drive from Gdansk (45
minutes with no traffic). We boarded the bus and were easily on our way. On the way to the city, we learned how
Gdynia was only a fishing village that was created as a new city only 100 years
ago. The history of Poland is much
longer—spanning over a thousand years, from medieval times, becoming a Catholic
nation, a monarchy to two world wars, communism, and now democracy. Teutonic knights, the German people, Mennonites,
and the Pope all played a part.
Before Poland was liberated from Nazi Germany, 90% of Gdansk
was destroyed. The country was liberated by the Russians. The people wanted to
rebuild and the Communists wanted their architecture, but the people wanted
the buildings reconstructed as they were. Some compromise was achieved and on
our way the city we could see the difference—stern buildings, compared to Neo-Gothic,
Gothic, even Baroque.
Our teacher had carefully pre-prepared the ingredients and we
each had our own station with flour, a dish of pork sausage, a dish of potato
and onion, a bowl of dough, a fork, and a rolling pin. There were other
fillings, some were sweet. Before a quick
demo we donned a clear plastic apron and went to work. TK made sausage pierogi,
I made potato and onion. We were good kids and did not get flour all over
ourselves and others. The teacher swept
our carefully handmade pierogies away to cook—I think they were boiled—and we
sat down to eat them. TK was adorably in
his element. We ate pierogies in Poland!!
The pierogies were quite tasty with sour cream. Neither of us
need sweet pierogies though. I had a chance to ask Joanna about the surname, Golab. Without hesitation she said it means “dove.”
I asked her about golabki—she said doves in a blanket. She also pronounced it
go-wumb---one can definitely hear the "b" on the end. That settles that—it is
what I believed all along. In French the
word for dove is la colombe. In Latin in
is columba---I am not an etymologist, but it would appear that the word for
dove in Polish might derive from Latin!
I also asked Joanna about Lublin, Poland, the city Tim’s grandparents
and my son’s great grandparents came from.
She said that Lublin was a very poor area and people migrated away to
find a better life. That is research for another day!
After all that fun and eating we had a little time to check
out more amber and Starbucks. Since
today was Sunday, open shops were limited.
First, she talked about the Mennonites in Poland, were a
historic community that settled primarily in the Vistula delta and Mazovia from
the 16th century, contributing significantly to agriculture and cultural
heritage before being displaced after World War II. She said if we knew any Mennonites
to thank them for Poland!
School from primary through university is free. It is
mandatory for children to go to school for 8 years, starting at age 7. Parents
are put in jail if they do not send their children to school. After 8 years students take an exam to go to secondary
school. After that they take another exam
and depending on that score they go to different universities if they wish.
When the country was Communist, studying Russian was
mandatory. Now the most popular language
to study is English, followed by Spanish, Italian, French, and rarely Russian.
Health care is very good and free.
It is incredible to think about some of the things Joanna
mentioned—
1990 was the first time they were able to watch American
TV/movies. For example, they loved Tom & Jerry and Dynasty. Previously that
they had to watch Communist propaganda. She remembered the jingle, "Coffee without
Cremora was like Dynasty without Alexa." Miami Vice—everyone had a crush on Don Johnson till Dirty Dancing and
Patrick Swayze came along. They got used to British humor (not easy at first,
Joanna said), like Mr. Bean, Monty Python, Allo! Allo! and Hyacinth.
They knew they arrived when McDonald’s showed up, in 1994.
That was forbidden in Communist countries.
Poland was admitted to NATO in 1999. There were growing pains, problems with
corruption and crime, but that has improved vastly.
Americans are very fortunate------
Language: Polish and Czechoslovakian are similar, and they
can understand each other. There are only 3 tenses in Polish, past, present,
and future. English has 16 tenses. There
are 7 cases in Polish. In English there are three: Nominative (subjective):
used for the subject of a sentence, Accusative (objective): used for the
object of a verb, and Genitive (possessive): used to show ownership. That is enough grammar lessons for today.
TK’s Takes: Poland is
10 out of 10. Our tour guide was great. We did not have enough time in
Gdansk. We needed measurements and
ingredients so we can make pierogi at home, but now we know the process. Lots
of people with dogs. We spotted Lidl’s, Circle K, Burger King, BP, Chinese, and
Mexican restaurants.
